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Brodie’s rear projector

Toronto. Brodie Whitelaw (photographer) was well known to professional photographers in Ontario, especially past-editor Ev Roseborough. Brodie spoke at our May, 1989 meeting displaying a sampling of his skill via many beautiful prints. Born in 1910, Brodie died decades later in 1995.

In issue 22-3, Ev wrote a fine article called, “Brodie and his Wonderful Machine”. It was a tale partly of Brodie’s life, the growth of commercial photography,  and Brodie’s experimental machine that barely predated decent Macs with colour screens and software to retouch images.

I wrote the following on Ev’s article for the web site: “Brodie Whitelaw was one of Canada’s great commercial photographers and a contemporary of Ev Roseborough. In this article, Ev covers Brodie’s career, and at the same time gives an insight into the growth of commercial photography in Canada.

“Late in his career, Brodie spent a dozen years in a labour of love on his ultimate tool for commercial studio shots… a rear projector with incredible light power. I had an opportunity to see the instrument in Ev’s studio earlier this year — You can see it too at the fall fair this October [1996].

“Before Brodie completed the projector to his satisfaction, technology had moved on with front projection and beam splitters, and more recently, computerized image retouching.”

Ev’s story has far more details (and photos). He begins his story as follows, “This is a tale of a period. Some seventy years, 1925 to 1995 more or less. It represents the active life–time, photographically, of Brodie Whitelaw. It also represents much of my own, with close parallels neither of us realised.

“Brodie discovered the lure of the lens and became a devotee of John Vanderpant, famous B.C. pictorialist, (see P.c. vol. 18 No.2). Much of his early soft-focus work resembles that of his mentor.

“Brodie’s parents, residents of Meaford, Ontario, died at an early age. The youngster, after receiving a fountain pen from his fellow students at Maple Leaf School on October 31, 1919, was put aboard the train bound for Vancouver where he was to live with an uncle.

“Graduating from U.B.C. in Arts in 1933, he determined to no longer impose on the resources of his uncle and set out for Toronto. He brought in addition to a portfolio of prints, a considerable knowledge of architecture and mechanical design.

“His ambition was to have studied aeronautical engineering but there were no courses in Canada and only one in the States with fees out–of-reach. This interest became a major factor in determining his future.

You can read all of Ev’s story in the issue 22-3 pdf file on the free members-only DVD. To join or renew, see the appropriate paragraphs above and at right. Problems? Questions? Email Lilianne at member@phsc.ca. NB. Please help us by indicating whether your membership is new or renew.